In many operational and manufacturing apparatus and processes it is advantageous that the distance between two solid bodies be determined with great accuracy. However, in many instances it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to manually determine the distance between two bodies because of harsh environmental effects, e.g., temperature, distortion of inner surfaces caused by high temperatures, dangerous forces and pressures, size of the respective bodies and other such prohibiting factors. For example, as set forth in assignee's prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,351 entitled MOLDING AND GAUGING SYSTEM (hereinafter "Assignee's Patent"), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, a gap measuring system can be used in a die casting or plastic molding system to determine the distances between molding element surfaces. In such molding systems, the molding elements may not entirely close upon each other because of faulty manufacturing, misalignment or warping of the molding elements and other causes. Consequently, during the casting process the parts may not be formed to specification, molten metal or plastic may be wastefully expelled between the molding elements, and the resulting cast parts may be rejected or require extensive machining with great cost. The use of the gap measuring system of Assignee's Patent, with the molding systems as described therein, permits molding systems to be operated with increased accuracy and reliability and substantial decreases in costs of operation, reject parts and machining processes.
In the system of Assignee's Patent, the nozzle insert incorporated into the system was a separate, hard, mold insert with a diameter of about 0.5 inch forming a circular orifice with diameter of 0.147 inch by a frustoconical inner wall with an included angle of about 90.degree. at the end of a long, circular passageway having an inner diameter of 0.375 inch. The circular orifice was located at a selected surface of a mold element.